Blog (180)

In particle physics we observe ‘Charge Quantisation’. If particles have electric charges they always exhibit a charge of 1.602 x 10-19 coulombs, or occasionally a multiple thereof, the basic charge on the electron or proton.

Now the quarks which seemingly compose baryons (such as the proton) and mesons apparently must carry fractional charges of one third or two thirds of this to account for the various types of observable baryons or mesons, although the quarks themselves remain unobservable individually.

If quarks carry 1/3 or 2/3 fractional electric charges we can still perhaps explain how they hold together as ‘whole’ electric charges using conventional strong nuclear chromodynamic forces based on gluons. However if fractional electric charges underlie the basic quantum of charge then conventional models cannot account for how fractional charges can stick together to form the charge on an electron.

HD8 models electric charge as arising from the spins of quantised units of spacetime along all three axes of time. Thus a quantum of basic electric charge has three more or less inseparable components. Quarks also apparently have a single colour charge but all observable particles manifest as ‘colour neutral’ by having either 3 or +1&-1 configurations. Now in HD8, colour charges also arise from spins of spacetime about the three axes of time, and this seems to allow quarks some kind of quasi-stability as 1 colour / 1 anticharge or one colour / two charge configurations, where colour partially stands in for charge.

However if this model can explain charge quantisation and the existence of colour charge then it throws into question the existence of a ‘colour force’.

Conventional strong nuclear ‘forces’ come in two types, the forces which holds quarks together in baryons and mesons, and the forces which hold the baryon particles the proton and neutron together in atomic nuclei. Unobservable gluons supposedly act as the force carriers for the former whilst the observable mesons such as pions supposedly act as the force carriers for the latter.

Yet in HD8 the geometry of spacetime itself accounts for the charge quantisation, ‘quark confinement’ and the colour neutrality of observable particles. Thus no inter-quark forces need to exist and colour charge merely adds mass to a particle, in a similar way to ‘generational charge’ which merely adds mass without creating an additional force.

However this model still needs to explain the forces between nucleons such as protons and neutrons. This so called ‘residual’ nuclear force actually accounts for the vast energies liberated in nuclear fission and fusion reactions which appear far greater than the energies liberated from the electromagnetic forces underlying chemical reactions.

The electric charges in chemical reactions operate at the distance scales of entire atoms, but if similar charges operate at nuclear distances the forces become immensely stronger as the following calculations show: -

Thus we see that at nuclear distances, electric charges can create the sort of macroscopic forces per particlecharacteristic of nuclear reactions.

Now consider that stable atomic nuclei can only exist with neutrons to somehow moderate the electric repulsions between protons. Consider the electric charges on the constituent quarks of the proton and neutron (here multiplied by 3 to eliminate fractions for convenience, but to preserve ratios.).

Now we know that protons and neutrons have a finite radius, they do not appear to consist of point particles like leptons as they have internal components which we call quarks. If these quarks have some mobility within the nucleons then the nucleons can exhibit a dipole moment resulting from a degree of charge separation. The majority of the possible configurations of dipole moments between various arrangements of the above charges give a markedly attractive effect which can easily explain the so called ‘residual’ strong nuclear forces.

In conclusion, whilst nucleon electric dipole moments can perhaps explain the strength of nuclear energy, the explanation of charge quantisation, quark confinement and colour neutrality purely in terms of the structure of a spacetime metric with 3 dimensions of time seems the most interesting result.

Consider the flowing data in support of the idea that within baryons, u quarks may consist of superpositions of various amounts of u, c, and t quarks, and particularly that d quarks may consist of superpositions of various amounts of d, s, and b quarks. This idea offers an alternative to the conventional idea of attributing virtually all of the mass of the proton and neutron, and hence of virtually all matter, to gluons.

Free Quark Masses, in MeV.

u = 1.7 – 3.1 c = 1290 t = 173,000

d = 4.1 – 5.7 s = 100 b = 4,190

Baryon Masses, in MeV.

Proton = (uud) 938 Neutron = (ddu) 939

One Strange. uds = 1115 uds = 1192 dds = 1197 uus = 1189

Two Strange. uss = 1314 dss = 1321

One Charm. udc = 2286 udc = 2452 uuc = 2454 ddc = 2453

One Strange, One Charm. usc = 2467 usc = 2575 dsc = 2470

Two Strange, One Charm. ssc 2695

Two Charm. dcc 3581

One Bottom. udb = 5620 uub = 5807 ddb = 5815* (*bottom sigma)

One Strange, One Bottom. dsb = 5790* (*bottom xi)

Two Strange, One Bottom. ssb = 6165

Baryons apparently non-existing. usb, ucb, anything containing a t.

Observations.

1) The replacement of a d quark by a HEAVIER s quark changes a Bottom Sigma into a LIGHTER Bottom Xi, whereas one might have expected a considerably heavier one.

2) We should perhaps not expect baryons to contain t quarks because of their exceptional energy, nevertheless only the dsb Bottom Xi carries a quark of each generation.

3) We observe the ssb but not the usb or the ucb.

4) The dsb Bottom Xi thus appears to exhibit an unusual stability in the form of a lower energy.

Prime Minister UK, David Cameron, who has always seemed like a decent sort of chap and done nothing stupid so far, displays both statesmanship and tactical genius with his EU referendum proposals.

Vote for me and I’ll try and negotiate a more sensible deal with the EU and then we’ll have a referendum on the results.

He says he will campaign to keep us in, but of course he has left himself room and reason to change his mind if we don’t get a sensible deal.

He has wrong-footed the continental euro-federalists, for other nations will plainly join us in demands for reform.

So Britain can now either put the EU right or leave it. Splendid.

Cameron has also taken the wind out of UKIP’s sails for the time being. They have done a fair job of forcing this matter into the open, but they will probably always remain essentially a pressure group. Nevertheless I hope they stay in the game to prevent any backsliding on the renegotiation and the referendum.

The leaders of the illiberal dimocrats and the dreary spendthrift labour party don’t seem to have anything of substance to respond with. They effortlessly confirm their caricatures as a pair of whingeing twerps perhaps better employed as sociology lecturers at some obscure polytechnic.

We could end up with an EU that reverts to its original writ, as a free trade zone, in which case we should stay in it; or we could end up with an EU that develops into a full blown Non-Democratic Synarchist Totalitarianism, in which case we should not only leave it but also strive to destroy it.

In the meantime we need to prevent the vast influx of Bulgarians and Romanians into the UK that EU rules will allow next year. I’m sure they are all delightful people, but our housing stock, our benefits system, and our labour market cannot accommodate them. Neither can those countries afford to loose a whole generation of their younger, more mobile and ambitious people.

Secondly, a Poem. Two years into Bardic studies and rhyme and rhythm still elude me, but here goes anyway……….

Liber Pactionis, my original founding document of the Pact lies in the public domain as does its sucessor document 'The Book'. Thus I place this document in the public domain also, even though by doing so I effectively Excommunicate myself from my old order, so don't bother trying to discuss it with me, discuss it amongst yourselves, for reform seems long overdue. Choyofaque, Stokastikos.

Pact Structural Reform, some ideas for a ‘Liber Pactionis 2’.

Rationale. ‘Liber Pactionis’, the founding document of The Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros contained some necessary compromises to allow an order to spring half formed across several continents from little more than a small temple in Britain and a couple of seminar meetings in Germany. The minor adjustments to structure introduced in ‘The Book’ do not seem sufficient to support a mature, vibrant, and expanding international order. See this paper:

In my view the Pact now needs to clearly define what its Magical Grades mean so that members can progress thought them and value them (I offer some suggestions below on how we could define them.) To do this the Pact would need to separate the Magical Grades from the Administrative Grades which should be open to election. This would give all members a chance to work towards all of the Magical Grades.

The Proposed Grade and Membership Reforms fit on a single page and consist of a proposals for the separation of Administrative Grades (mandated by Election) and Magical Grades (recognised by Peer approval).

Provisional draft of revisions for a new ‘Liber Pactionis 2’ document.

Administrative Gradesall remain subject to Election by electoral colleges of active members (of initiate or higher grade) at appropriate local or national or international level. Members may hold more than one position.

1) Grandmaster. International coordination and administration. Chairperson of Council of International Section Heads.

2) General Secretaries to the Grandmaster. International communications and publications and administration.

(2b) Past Grandmaster(s). Offer consultancy and continue to promote the order in their works.

3) National Section Heads. Supervise national sections.

4) Magister Templi of local temples. Run local temples.

5) Insubordinates to Magister Templi. Secretary and critic to MT.

Magical Grades.All subject to admission by Peer Review by committees of those holding that grade or higher grade.

Establish the principle that a Magical Grade means Personal Work in Progress.

(Novice), cancel this grade as a superfluous obstruction.

4.Neophyte. MMM under a Mentor. Admission to temples and meetings lies at the discretion of Mentor and Magister Templi.

3.Initiate. Participation at Temple. Learn some set rituals, including The Mass of Chaos B, and lead them. Work through Liber KKK, or similar.

2.Adept. Further temple work. Work with all 8 planetary Magics, either privately or in temple and show records of it. Work on an agreed project which could include Priest/Priestess of Chaos or similar. Write up an original ritual and a piece on some aspect of magic and publish it somewhere, if only to colleagues. Mentor a Neophyte.

1.Magus. Work on Projects and Quests and activities which the Magus should periodically discuss with other Magi. The Order expects its Magi to Teach, to do Research, and to promote the Great Work of Magic.

(0.Ipsissimus. Normally left vacant as an aspiration, possibly awarded posthumously.)

(Elder), cancel this grade as superfluous. If people want to partially retire they can do. If organisers of events want to invite them to events they can do.

Notes.

I would welcome comments on exactly what work should constitute the work of the Magical Grades, if anything a toughening of the specifications seems desirable.

I shall continue to argue against the idea that the work of the grades should remain very loosely defined, or largely defined by administrative responsibilities, for I consider this the main structural weakness of the IOT.

Nevertheless it obviously remains desirable that higher administrative positions go to members with higher magical grades.

I would recommend that members holding grades that do not come up to the requirements that may become agreed, hold on to that grade for a period of one year to give them time to rectify the deficiency, or else consider dropping a degree.

I see my own role as that of Past Grandmaster, offering consultancy and continuing to promote the order in my works. I would like to offer myself for election to this post. I may even consider taking up invitations to attend Pact events if, and only if, suitable reforms become implemented.

I don't think standard cosmology has got the size far wrong but it has got the time wrong, in Vorticitating Hypersphere Cosmology time appears 'Finite and Unbounded', and thus effectively unlimited, despite the temporal horizon, thus allowing such structures as the above to form.

From His Pestilence Stokastikos the First; upon the eve of his 60th birthday.

Fellow earthlings, firstly let me say to the majority of you who haven’t got there yet that 60 seems far more agreeable than I had anticipated. Perhaps as a result of self-employment, walking everywhere (acute Apophenia suggests I don’t drive), occasional punishing exercise, and a couple of books a week, I still have my own hair and teeth, a 32 inch waist, and still enough IQ to understand the limitations of IQ. I will perhaps live till 84, for a Uranus return. So the brief time remaining leaves me a hell of a lot to do, what with the global situation looking pretty shite, the Big Bang delusion still infecting cosmology, particle physics still in a state of confusion, a coherent theory of magic still in its infancy, my country still ensnared in the corrupt and undemocratic EU synarchy, EPOCH, the Esotericon and Portals of Chaos to complete, starships not yet invented, Svalbard and New Zealand amongst many places as yet unvisited, and grandchildren perhaps on the horizon in maybe 3 years time and maybe 10 years time.

You may have noticed that the world failed to end on the recent winter solstice. As a precaution I sent someone down into the vaults of Arcanorium College to dust off the old Achroniser and give the faintly glowing ruby reset button a good whack, this sent the entire universe exactly 63,081,429 years backwards in time, yes, the entire universe, lock stock and barrel, normal service of course resumes instantly, we usually only do this when the Jehovah’s Witnesses start playing silly buggers, but seriously..........

The survival of human civilisation, as we know it, for the next 24 years seems far from certain though. During my lifetime the world’s human population has almost trebled, a critical dependency on fossil fuels has developed, westernised economies have become addicted to growth, developing nations with huge populations now embark on the same course, and the climate has begun to go awry with the strong possibility that it will go much more seriously awry sooner rather than later.

The older westernised economies now seem likely to have few growth prospects for the next decade at least, and little appetite to invest wealth in remedying the medium term ills of the global situation. Everywhere the pressure to maintain if not increase fossil fuel and resource consumption remains paramount.

All in all, the situation looks very fragile. A modern city may look very solid and grand but its continued existence depends on inputs of resources from singular or highly interdependent sources. Any interruption to its supplies of power, or fuel, or food, or information, would now reduce it to smoking rubble in a week.

Unless economic consequences force policy changes first, mega-deaths may have to occur before the socio-political will to address the problems of overpopulation, overconsumption, and climate change arises. A few billion untimely deaths would not in themselves matter much to the survival of our species, but a substantial loss of knowledge and technology could set the human adventure back several centuries or millennia into a new dark age. This planet lies littered with failed human civilisations and abandoned cities, but in the past failure tended to remain local, recovery from global failure would prove far more challenging. Save some real books, don’t commit everything to electronic media. Consider joining The Knights of Chaos, First Earth Battalion, we conjure actively against global catastrophe.

On a brighter note, two new courses begin on Arcanorium College in the 3rd semester of out glorious seventh year. www.arcanoriumcollege.com

My own course, ‘Physics for Mystics and Magicians’ draws to a close after an intensive look at the questions implied by such established and speculative phenomena as holographic universe ideas, quantum-neuroscience, panpsychism, and the Drake equation.

Amongst the many books I received during the festive season I can recommend:

The Starry Rubric – Seventeenth Century English Astrology and Magic. By Alexander Cummins (Head of the Department of historical Magic at Arcanorium College) and Doctoral researcher at Bristol University.

This book really gives the reader an insight into how people actually used astrological and magical ideas practically in the 17th century, and how much such ideas and practices affected people’s personal lives and even the destiny of the nation during the turbulent period including the English civil war. Deeply researched and brilliantly narrated.

Hadean Press. ISBN 978 907881 21 3.

By some strange coincidence I also received a 1783 copy of a Cornelius Agrippa and Peter de Abano book of 1555, in English, resuming the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Geomancy, and The Arbatel of Magic, still in readable condition; this has proved a fascinating accompaniment to Al Cummings book above.

Also I must recommend ‘Antifragile’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, published by Random House (USA), Penguin-Allen Lane (UK) ISBN 978 1 846 14156 0

The Sunday Times called him ‘The hottest thinker in the world’; they may well have a point.

In English, ‘Intellectual’ has strong connotations of ‘effete arts based leftie with head in clouds or up own arse, probably French, and best ignored by sensible pragmatic thinkers’. Taleb does not fall into this category. Rather he comes across as a muscular renaissance style polymath who has seen a lot and done a lot, and put his money where his mouth is, making a personal fortune in the process. Readers may remember his Black Swans and Fooled by Randomness books. He writes of living in a world of fundamental unpredictability, but a world in which we can at least respond, not by attempting to predict events, but by creating structures at all levels that improve rather than break under stress. He provides an illuminating swathe of examples of fragility and anti-fragility in everything from biology and evolution to personal and societal health, through engineering to economics and politics, with enlightening asides from classical philosophers to modern ones, and from a couple of characters that may well represent poles of his own extensive personality. He extols the virtues of chaotic inputs to various systems and pours vituperative scorn upon the ’fragillistas’ who end up wrecking things by trying to create false stability. All in all he has produced some thoughts of great practical value; some of them might just get the world beyond a number of its current crises.

Despite my attempts to remain animageous in the public domain, (I do not wish for disturbance whilst reading on public transport, or neighbors with brands and pitchforks, so I decline to confirm or deny that any of the confusing array of images purporting to portray me actually do so.), yet someone found a copy of a video interview I gave in the nineties in LA. Well it’s about 20 years old now and I’ve since redesigned my facial topiary, so I’ve let it pass. Perchance that the video interview contains any errors due to the jet lag under which we conducted it, I gave the publisher of it a long e-mail interview for edition 5 of his Chaosphere magazine, see magazine and video at:

May I wish you a survivable Pandaemonaeon, as we move into the ‘interesting times’ of globalization and hyperscience, and towards perhaps some largely unpredictable mixture of enlightenments and catastrophes.

Seasonal Greetings for the Mayan end of the world on 21/12/12, and for the festive season thereafter on 25th December to mark the birthdays of Horus, Jesus, Mithras, and various other minor deities.

I have made no plans to immolate my children and livestock with an obsidian knife atop a pyramid in the grounds of my estates, and I note with relief that the Druids here plan to celebrate Solstice here on Sunday 23rd, as we prefer weekends. As an act of faith I’ve also booked a trip to Guatemala next year to see what all the fuss WAS all about, hopefully it will be completely tourist free by then.

Nevertheless I have prepared an e-Christmas card entitled Miskatonia for the edification of any aliens visiting this planet post-apocalypse. It shows all the most popular interstellar tourist destinations and saucer landing sites: - Thule, Stonehenge, The Great Pyramid, Arkham, Agarthi, Shambala, Atlantis, R’yleh, Puma Punku, The Mountains of Madness, Uluru, Dogon-ville, and Mount Shasta in relief, all connected by appropriate planetary ley lines. Acrylics and mixed media on canvass. Note that for aesthetic reasons I’ve shown the long route from R’yleh to the Mountains of Madness in the trans-Antarctic range

It seems unlikely that we shall have either immediate apocalypse or enlightenment on 21/12/12. Overpopulation and Anthropogenic Climate Change seem to offer a far greater threat to civilisation and the survival of humanity than anything currently in view of our telescopes. However we can perhaps hope that enlightenment about this slow burning apocalypse will become universal after 21/12/12. If you must immolate something on this day then stick some pins in the images of family planning opponents and climate change deniers.

It looks like the mouldy old C of E has done a deal with the government, women bishops in return for gay marriage exemption. It won’t last you know, sooner or later someone will mount a challenge in the infernal European courts where the State Religion of Political Correctness trumps all other forms of belief. After that, activists will solicit a refusal of marriage from a Mosque and go to Europe over that and win. Then we shall have some entertaining and invigorating riots in our northern cities. We can only make our own laws stick if we quit the blasted EU.

A gay has held the Britannic Archbishopric of my old order, and a woman currently holds it now; for true liberalism and theological flexibility choose Neo-Paganism.

Heaven only knows why women and gays want involvement with the ghastly genocidal tyrant of the monotheist god anyway; He hates women and gays, just read His appalling book. It all went terribly wrong for Him when He split up from his missus, the Israelite goddess Asherah.

Well I’ve had a tumultuous year, married off my eldest daughter to a fine highlander, acquired a factory and moved operations there, started converting the old commercial premises into a block of flats, visited Italy, un-solved the Pioneer anomaly, given a couple of courses on Arcanorium College, wrote half the Esotericon, and surfed rather badly as usual in Wales. It’s amazing what you can do if you don’t watch television.

All the best for a chaotically creative 2013. Regards, Pete.

Note that this blogsite uses the pioneering new protocols of anti-social media, you cannot reply to it. The last time I tried an open site it attracted over a thousand mad people within a week. Send serious enquiries to the email address in the contact section.

Obama Wins, Apocalypse probably Averted. Let us celebrate the triumph of the lesser of two evils, barking mad religious nut case backed by financial- military-industrial faction fails to become POTUS. My thanks for all supporting conjurations from all KoC First Earth Batallion Sorcerers.

Scottish Independence War rages in my household. My eldest has married into the highlands and gone native with all the passion of a recent convert. Little but tartan romanticism makes some Scots want 'freedom' from the UK and err, independent EU membership, this sounds patently barmy. Scotland would gain more freedom as part of a United Kingdom that freed itself from the non-democracy of the EU Totalitarian Synarchy.

All arguments for the EU seem either defeatist of fatuous. The argument that it will end wars in europe seems the most absurd of all. We no longer have wars in europe because european countries have become democracies and democracies do not fight each other. However the apallingly non-democratic EU seems designed to create internal strife.

The previous 'Pioneer Anomaly Un-Solved' post here two posts ago seems to have hit a nerve and attracted a great many reads. The Nasa team could have saved themselves a great deal of work on those telemetry tapes if they had simply looked at experimental photon thrust research.

Commencing 12th November I shall lead a course entitled 'Physics for Mystics and Magicians' on www.arcanoriumcollege.com a course by Sorror Res, entitled "The message of the medium: Exploring the magick of memoires through the aeons" , will accompany it.

I went on a cultural tour of Italy a couple of weeks ago. The Medici stuff in Florence impressed me greatly but the Vatican struck me as the most grandiose pile of bad taste on this planet, I felt moved to write a little poem......

Our current understanding of the atomic nucleus looks pretty incomplete and messy. In particular the explanations of why u and d quarks with a mass of just a few MeV each combine to form protons and neutrons with masses of nearly a thousand MeV don’t look particularly convincing.

The HD8 hypothesis suggests that particle generation arises from a particular type of higher dimensional ‘spin’ or vorticitation.

Now we commonly observe particles that appear to have come from a state of superposition immediately prior to the observation or measurement that kills the superposition. (HD8 assigns these superpositions to extra time dimensions.)

We have observed that neutrinos appear to fluctuate between three generations whilst in flight, or alternatively that any one generation of neutrino could perhaps consist of a superposition of various amounts of all three generations.

Thus perhaps, whilst confined in nucleons what we call d quarks actually consist of a superposition of various amounts of d,s and b quark, and that u quarks actually consist of superpositions of various amounts of u,c, and t quarks.

The second and third generations of matter would then appear not as bizarrely exotic and apparently unnecessary components of the universe but as entirely integral to it, for without some contribution from the generational spin components of say bottom and top quarks, protons and neutrons would not have much mass at all.

'the sun is slightly too round to agree with our understanding of its rotation'

The above article covers recent space based observations of the shape of the sun. Any large spinning object tends to bulge out at its equator, the earth's equatorial diameter for example exceeds its polar diameter by about 13 miles.

The sun seems to have less of an equatorial bulge than we would expect from basic theory.

This may actually offer supporting evidence for Vorticitating Hypersphere Cosmology which predicts a general fillip to orbital velocity of

Vo = (Gm/r - rA)^1/2

Where A = Anderson decelleration.

This has the same effect as an increase in 'centripetal force' at large distances and could well lead to less oblateness in stellar sized rotating bodies.

More...

The Book of Baphomet.An introductory address delivered at the book launch, 4/8/12, Glastonbury, by Pete Carroll.

I’d like to begin by looking a little at the life and work of the man who brought the idea of Baphomet to the modern world, Eliphas Lévi, born Alphonse Louis Constant (February 8, 1810 - May 31, 1875),

He trained as a Catholic priest but resigned due to falling in love, he then started to write revolutionary politics/theology, for which he got imprisoned twice during the various political crises in mid 19th century France. After that he began an influential career in esoterics and magic, writing several books and visiting Britain where his ideas would eventually have a great impact on the Golden Dawn.

He made a journey from CLERGYMAN, to RADICAL, to MAGUS.

Apart from a little light reading in witchcraft, Levi’s books provided me with my first introduction to magic.

It was largely through the occultists inspired by him that Lévi is remembered as one of the key founders of the 20th century revival of magic. He came up with four ideas which seem important: -

1) Astral Light theory. This departure from straight neo-platonic ideas at least had the virtue of making people think a bit more deeply about how magic might work.

2) The Upright and Averse pentagrams as symbols having different meanings.

3) The equation between the 22 Trumps of the Tarot and the Hebrew Alphabet and the elements, with this he opened up a huge field of syncretic speculation.

4)Baphomet, an image worth a thousand words.

This may look a bit Kitsch now, having appeared on rather too many black leather jackets, but the ideas it appears to represent graphically have had enormous impact, basically Levi hints that this image constitutes his vision of God.

Levi seems to have written about it in rather guarded, almost milquetoast terms, but remember he had already got himself imprisoned for writing too plainly about politics.

This seemed like just about everything I wanted in a deity!I thus offered it as a central rite of the Pact, in the Mass of Chaos (B).

So where did Levi get the idea from? Well partly from historical myth and legend and partly from his personal feelings and imagination and mysticism one suspects.

The Catholic Church and the French King accused the Templars of Heresy, almost certainly falsely, and their inquisitors threw in all the usual accusations of sex, sorcery, blasphemy, and Baphomet worship.

Occultists admire the Templars on the basis that they might just have actually had a taste for sex and blasphemy and maybe magic. However their actual sin as far as western Christendom was concerned was LOOSING THE HOLY LAND, following their disastrous defeat at Hattin.

The accusation of Baphomet worship arose from a mispronunciation, Muhammad = Mohamed = Mahomet = Baphomet. The crusaders imagined that the Moslems worshipped some mad primitive savage deity/devil, and it seemed that their deity was beating ours.

The Templars were really accused of going native and sympathizing with the Islamic enemy. The blasphemy accusations arose because part of their training involved getting prepared to appear to renounce their faith if captured. The Vatican has recently accepted this.

All gods and all religions and all magical traditions get cobbled together out of bits and pieces of previous traditions. It’s all syncretic, scholarship confirms this, and Chaos Magic adopts it as a guiding principle without apology or evasion.

So, starting with Levi’s drawing, what have modern esotericists done with Baphomet?

DUALISTIC ANDROGYNOUS LUCIFERIC THERIOMORPHIC

SEXUALISED MAGICAL SHAMANIC + GAIANISTIC

They have added GAIA, a sense of the sacredness of the Biosphere and Ecology, Life on Earth.

And that makes a rather pleasing Eight!

This new book by Nikki Ward and Julian Vayne resumes the fascinating history of the development of the concept of Baphomet from its earliest historical mention through its development by Levi and then to the cutting edge of its current manifestation.

Their brave and audacious exploration of the modern Baphometic current using full-on eroto-gnosis and extreme chemo-gnosis creates a tale which is destined to enter into esoteric legend.

For some years I served as Treasurer to the Bristol Branch of UKIP, my first ever membership of a political party. I joined for several reasons, partly because EU regulatory red tape has started to create idiotic problems for my business without bringing any benefits, but mainly because I didn’t want to see my country subsumed within a developing Synarchist Totalitarianism, or to have to open its already overcrowded shores to uncontrolled immigration. I attended the triumphalist conference after the 2004 European parliament elections but left after the 2005 Westminster general election campaign. I had three reasons for doing so.

Firstly I don’t think the UKIP MEPs should take the enemy EU shilling. They should not draw any form of salary or expenses, for to do so means compromising and corrupting themselves. Yet their policy of stunts and buffoonery in the EU ‘parliament’ seems perfectly appropriate for a virtually powerless sham parliament that exists merely as a fig leaf for the democratic deficit of the EU. They should seek funding from the UKIP membership or simply keep their day jobs. MEPs have almost nothing of any significance that they can actually do anyway. If UKIP had had such a policy it would not have ended up with crooks and spivs standing for MEP election.

Secondly I deplored the strategic error of contesting far too many Westminster seats in the 2005 general election. This simply destroyed the funds I had spent a lot of time gathering and adding to personally, without applying any significant electoral pressure to the Conservative party whatsoever. The British people seem happy to vent their anger at the EU by sending a two fingered message in the form of a dozen UKIP MEPs, but they remain unwilling to have such buffoonery in Westminster.

Thirdly, and most importantly for me, I found the attempts by UKIP to develop a manifesto policy on the environment lazy, scientifically illiterate, and terrifyingly myopic. Well maybe one doesn’t expect much intellectually from a party that has had to adopt a right-wing-populist agenda to gets its euro-skepticism across, but its Friday, 13thmanifestoes of April 2012 stoop to new depths of contemptible short sighted populism on the subject of ‘Planning for our green and pleasant land’

It includes such gems as: -

“Ban new wind farms and subject existing ones to democratic local planning procedures,

Stop all payments to the Intergovernmental Climate Change Panel and other UN climate-related agencies.”

Humanity now faces the tragedy of having Too Much Fossil Fuel with the discovery of the deep gas and the oil shale reserves. This doesn’t actually seem all that surprising, this planet doesn’t naturally have an oxygen atmosphere, free oxygen exists solely because millions of years of photosynthetic activity have liberated it and buried the carbon whist doing so. This planet holds enough fossil fuel to consume all the atmospheric oxygen and if we don’t stop burning it soon the planet will trap ever more energy and the climate will go really crazy, we can look forwards to rising sea levels and severe rain flooding alternating with scorching droughts, welcome to a new dinosaur age.

Both my daughters study ecology at degree and doctoral levels, the evidence for anthropic climate change and mass-species extinction remains increasingly impossible to deny, both they and I remain severely concerned for their futures.

UKIP does not take its nimbyism far enough, okay so most people would rather not have wind turbines and solar panels all over the place, but do they really want an unstable climate, ruined agriculture, resource wars raging all over the world, and climate refugees in their backyard instead?

Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels will have its costs, particularly if Britain’s competitors do not follow suit till later, but Britain should have the courage to make some sacrifices for the future and to set an example. In the longer term, renewable energy technology developed with the customary British genius for science, engineering and innovation will provide an invaluable export commodity.

The current UKIP stance on the environment sounds like cowardly appeasement, oh this carbon dioxide thingy is nothing to worry about, it might be nice to have the place a bit warmer, let the carbon giants get on with it, they pay the bills and keep the trains running, it will all blow over eventually…….

Well no it won’t. It will get bloody serious and threaten our way of life in these green and pleasant lands if we don’t stand up and show a bit of Churchillian foresight and backbone.

Saturday and off to Glastonbury for the Book of Baphomet book launch. Decided to go a bit early and inspect glasto itself, it has rather a lot of mystical supermarkets and galleries, catering it would seem, largely to the tourist and pilgrimage trade, I can hardly imagine the local hippys and pagans managing to consume a fraction of the merchandise on offer. Some of the stuff on offer seemed totally OTT to a mage that just carries but a simple self-made wooden pocket wand. Just how much extra belief can you invest in a two foot long silver chased bar of machined quartz encrusted with half a pound of exotic semi-precious stones?

Anyway, I acquired a copy of Phil Bakers book on Austin Osman Spare http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/austin-osman-spare-2/ having read such glowing reviews of it on Arcanorium College www.arcanoriumcollege.com , and indeed it makes for a very informative read, it seems stylishly written and deeply researched, and really gives the flavour of the brilliant crazy old rogue and wizard, and his life and times. It also clears up certain misconceptions that have crept into more popular accounts of his life and work.

The Book of Baphomet book launch went well, Julian Vayne and Nikki Wyrd played their promo videos and then spoke about their work and book and I gave a bit of background to the development of the Baphomet concept since Levi. The guests included the extraordinary Orryelle Defenestrate Bascule with whom I spent some time, rather like Genesis P Orridge he sports a weird riotous fairground sort of appearance yet beneath the showmanship lies a serious alternative philosopher, we have exchanged publications and established lines of communication.

Thence to Druidry Grove on Sunday for some rather quieter reflective ritual work, and the usual philosophical salon with the Proff.

Refreshingly, during the entire 11 hours of these events nobody at all even mentioned the Olympics once.

In case they had done so I came prepared with my hound's results across Llangenith sands, she would have won the 100m rather easily, and almost reached a seagul before it lifted off, must discourage such behaviour.

Firstly a number of interesting items from some of my friends and colleagues: -

Dave Lee’s new novel, The Road to Thule. A rollicking tale of futuristic post apocalypse Wodenist society replete with strange science and sorcery, plenty of sex and violence, surprising storyline, fascinating characters, all in all; a book in a genre all of its own, you don’t come across anything like this very often. Niche critical acclaim already calls for a prequel and a sequel. Lets hope Dave obliges.

I had the privilege of reading the draft of this astonishing work, hence on the back cover it says:

“An excellent read, consisting as it does of such a wealth of
information, research, anecdote, experience and vision” - Peter J Carroll.

I might also add that it also contains some remarkable work by its authors with sex magic and heroic chemognosis, so obtain a copy now, perchance it should become banned.

Secondly, EPOCH, The Esotericon and Portals of Chaos, proceeds well, it should eventually consist of about 50 large images on cards which the magician can use for cartomancy, but which we have primarily designed as altarpieces as foci for Evocation and Invocation, plus a book containing three Grimoires for Elemental, Planetary and Stellar magic, this last appears as an updated Necronomicon. Matt Kabryn and I, assisted by the Staff and Alumni of Arcanorium College, should have this ready in about a year. I’m making statues of the entities involved for use in ritual work, and to assist the graphics effort. Attached see Hastur.